COCKLE BURR, THE ROUGH-NECK 



"AW! Shut up! You guys make me sick with 

 ■^*- your yappin'. Can the chatter and let a 

 feller sleep," disgustedly growled the rough-neck 

 cockle burr one early morning in August, over in 

 Farmer Careless's corn field. He had been awak- 

 ened this morning by the lamentations of the corn 

 stalks growing in the field. They were all passing 

 through a very hot, dry period of the summer, that 

 would be long remembered as one of the hottest 

 and driest ever experienced. All the stalks were 

 suffering, not only on account of the lack of rainfall, 

 but because the supply of plant food was insufficient 

 for good development, and also because Farmer 

 Careless had permitted the field to become infested 

 with cockle burrs. 



These rough customers were growing in the hills 

 with the stalks of corn, robbing the plants of the 

 moisture and plant food, as well as crowding the 

 stalks, until it became almost unbearable. As the 

 spiny seed-pods of the cockle burr developed and 



matured, they scratched and irritated the stalks of 



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